PhD position: Ecosystem-based and evolutionary approach to the exploitation of species

When
15 Apr 2022
Location
Sorbonne University, France

Given the present biodiversity crisis, sustainable management of populations directly exploited by humans is essential. In the context of fisheries, management is done by modulating the fishing effort, in space or time, in the form of regulations or incentives (eg, definition of quotas, marine protected areas). The vast majority of these regulations are made on a species-by-species basis and ignore ecosystem (eg, change in the interaction network) and evolutionary (variation in age at maturity, adult size) aspects. This PhD project proposes to study these two aspects and their implications for the socio-ecological sustainability of these systems. The aim is to understand how different fishing scenarios affect the propagation of indirect effects within the ecological network, but also how these fishing pressures can affect the co-evolution of species. Finally, the establishment of marine protected areas being an important tool of current fisheries management, we propose to explicitly consider these spatial aspects taking into account the heterogeneity of selection pressures (exploited vs fished areas) at the scale of the region.

The proposed work will be based on the development of ecological models (ODE models) and eco-evolutionary models (dynamic adaptive or quantitative genetic type). Project details can be found here.

Funding is made available by the Institute for Environmental Transition (Sorbonne University), subject to validation of the candidate by the Sorbonne University doctoral training institute. The student will be co-supervised by Nicolas Loeuille (Pr Sorbonne University (Paris), Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, where the PhD will take place) and Jean Christophe Poggiale (Pr University Aix-Marseille , Mediterranean Institute of Oceanology). Suitable candidates will have (or will be in the process of obtaining) a master degree in Biodiversity Ecology Evolution with a strong theoretical component, or a master degree in applied mathematics or modeling.

If interested, send before April 15, 2022 to nicolas.loeuille@sorbonne-universite.fr and jean-christophe.poggiale@univ-amu.fr a file including:

- a letter of motivation
-CV
- the details of the grades (and rankings if available) of the university cursus
-names and email addresses of two referees

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